Travel planning systems may be used to search for itineraries that meet a set of criteria submitted, for example, by a potential traveler. The systems produce itineraries and prices by selecting suitable trips or flights from a database of travel carriers, geographic scheduling, and pricing information. Travel planning systems may be computer programs that automate part of the process of identifying the itineraries.
Travel planning systems may display a single list of possible travel itineraries. The traveler browses through the information in the list and compares the details of the different itineraries to select a preferred itinerary. Travelers may have difficulty comparing, discriminating, focusing or assimilating some of the details that are presented in the list.
Many travel systems display travel information on computer systems. Certain travel planning systems may be accessible from remote computer clients over a network, such as the Internet or an Intranet, using a browser such as a web browser. In such travel-planning systems, the itineraries may be formatted in a tag-based format, such as HyperText Markup Language (HTML), or eXtensible Markup Language (XML). The itineraries may include links, such as “hyperlinks” or “links”, which cause a browser to display a particular set of data.